HEBRON: A Palestinian teenager shot by settlers near the southern West Bank town of Hebron died of his wounds overnight and mourners clashed with Israeli troops at his funeral today. Yusef Ikhlil(17) was shot in the head on Friday and taken in critical condition to Hebron’s Al-Ahly hospital where he was put on life support. He died at around midnight, Palestinian police said. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral today, and some threw stones at an Israeli army watchtower, to which soldiers retaliated with tear gas. Two mourners suffered gas inhalation,  no major injuries wer...
Published On: 2011-01-30

SANNA: Dozens of activists calling for the ouster of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed today with the regime’s supporters in Sanaa. Plainclothes police also attacked demonstrators who marched to the Egyptian embassy in Sanaa chanting ‘Ali, leave leave’ and ‘Tunisia left, Egypt after it and Yemen in the coming future’. No casualties have been reported in the  clashes. A female activist, Tawakel Karman, who has led several protests in Sanaa during the past week,  security forces in civilian clothes tried to attack her with a dagger and a s...
Published On: 2011-01-30

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak, clinging to power despite unprecedented demands for an end to his 30-year rule, met on Sunday with the powerful military which is widely seen as holding the key to Egypt's future. Mubarak held talks with Vice President Omar Suleiman, whose appointment on Saturday has possibly set the scene for a transition in power, Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami al-Anan and other senior commanders. An earthquake of unrest is shaking Mubarak's authoritarian grip on power and the high command's support is vital as other pillars of his ruling appar...
Published On: 2011-01-30

TOKYO: Police say they are investigating the death of a man who fell from a roller coaster at a Tokyo amusement park. They say the man fell Sunday as he was riding with a friend on the Spinning Coaster Maihime at the Tokyo Dome park. He was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead two hours later. The small roller coaster has single cars which spin like a tea cup as they travel along a track. Police say they are investigating whether the accident was caused by professional negligence or if the man failed to follow safety instructions. Tokyo Dome had no immediate comment but suspended all...
Published On: 2011-01-30

ISLAMABAD: The United States demanded the immediate release of an American arrested in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis, saying Saturday that he is a diplomat who qualifies for immunity from prosecution and was illegally detained. The statement from the embassy raised the stakes in what could emerge as a major dispute between Pakistan and the United States. It also showed the shaky nature of ties between the two nations, a relationship Washington believes is crucial for success in Afghanistan and against al-Qaida. Pakistani prosecutors said Friday they would pursue murder charges in the...
Published On: 2011-01-29

CAIRO: Egyptian riot police fired rubber bullets at protesters who had promised a ‘Friday of Wrath’ in Cairo to demand the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule as part of a wave of unrest gripping the Middle East. Angry protesters gathered in a neighbourhood near a residential palace belonging to Mubarak, and in other areas of the city police used teargas and water cannon to disperse demonstrators. Tens of thousands were demonstrating across the nation, witnesses said. Protesters shouted ‘Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak’ and stamped on posters of the presiden...
Published On: 2011-01-29

NEW DELHI: India is looking towards ‘unlocking processes’ and exploring ‘doables’ to revive the stalled dialogue with Pakistan, officials said today, as Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao prepares to meet her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir next week in Thimpu. The Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers met last April in the Bhutanese capital, on the sidelines of the SAARC summit, and appeared to chart a fresh roadmap for a dialogue process to re-start, but Islamabad’s failure to act on bringing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2...
Published On: 2011-01-29

NEW YORK: Half of men would forgive their female partner’s infidelity, as long as it was with another woman, according to a new study on cheating. Women, however, were less likely to forgive and forget if their boyfriend had been with another man, the University of Texas at Austin study showed. Researchers asked 718 college students to imagine being in a long-term relationship and what their reactions would be to several different cheating scenarios. They found that overall, 50 per cent of men would likely continue a relationship with a woman who had a dalliance with another woman, w...
Published On: 2011-01-29

GALLE: ‘Does it make sense to defend freedom of speech by calling on writers not to speak at a literary festival?’ This question is being asked in Sri Lanka this week, after media freedom group Reporters Without Borders called on authors to boycott the Galle Literary Festival because of the country’s human rights record. The campaign has seen Paris-based group, also known by its French name Reporters Sans Frontieres, being criticised in Sri Lanka from the sorts of people it usually defends from repressive regimes. RSF warned writers attending the event that by doing so they ...
Published On: 2011-01-29

THIMPU: A Buddhist monk could face five years in prison after becoming the first casualty of a stringent anti-smoking law in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which vows to become the first smoke-free nation. The monk has been charged with consuming and smuggling contraband tobacco under a law that came into force this month, the newspaper Kuensel reported today, having been caught in possession of 72 packets of chewing tobacco. Bhutan, where smoking is considered bad for one’s karma, banned the sale of tobacco in 2005. But with a thriving smuggling operation from neighbouring Indi...
Published On: 2011-01-29